‘I wish I had TikTok growing up, I probably wouldn’t have felt so alone’

A SOCIAL media content guru from Gormanston who was named a TikTok Breakthrough Star in 2023 says it is his “dream" to host the Late Late Show.

TikTok creator Chris Murphy or @chrisisainmdom is a breakout star on the TikTok comedy scene boasting almost 850,000 followers on the platform. He is also a proud gay man.

Chris has been making waves in the social media world over the last couple of years and was recently named a LGTBQ trailblazer for TikTok. As an acknowledgment to his captivating content, the social media giant invited Chris to the Copenhagen Pride Festival and he also attended the Eurovision in Liverpool this year courtesy of platform.

"I went with some other creators around Europe," said Chris. " That was really special, I really enjoyed that. We went there for five days and saw absolutely everything, it was probably the best thing I have done in my life so far," he added.

"I really showed up for TikTok this year and they showed up for me. TikTok is really good at rewarding people who are consistent and being active on the platform.

"It has been a whirlwind and definitely a huge step from when I was back at doing videos in my childhood bedroom a couple of years ago!"

The Gormanston social media influencer who is now based in London and working with Asos started making comedy sketch videos during Covid but could have never imagined how successful they would become. “It kind of snowballed really fast, because I went from having no followers to having almost half a million in a very short space of time," he said.

"The first video that took off was sharing the experiencing of a gay person going to a barbers and being a little bit nervous and not knowing what to say when being asked if you watched the game last night.

"It seemed something very internal for me and I remember thinking at the time, nobody is going to get this but it is a shared experience for a lot of queer people. Speaking on growing up as a homosexual in a heterosexual environment has always been the standing point of the TikToks and just building a community around that."

Chris told how coming out was "a huge weight off his shoulders," but says growing up in a rural community in catholic Ireland made him try to deny who he really was.

“I always say you have to come out twice, you have to accept yourself first and then come out to other people," said the social media star.

“Just because I was so far in the closet, I didn’t really admit it to myself until I was 17 or 18. Only when I went to college, I realised that it was a more accepting environment, college is such a bubble where you can be whoever you want to be," he added.

“A lot of it was shame, not wanting to be gay and denying it. Everywhere I went homophobia was so prevalent. When you think about it, in 1993 it was illegal to be gay which is absolutely insane to think about because I was born the year after and It’s not a million years ago, it’s quite recent."

Chris says growing up in a rural community made him try to deny who he really was. He added:

“We are all growing as a society now, but I grew up in a very traditional Irish family with Mass every Sunday.

"I went to a boarding school, and I was taught by priests, it was all boys school, it was very homophobic the absolute worst thing you could be was gay.

“There was a lot of hiding who I was, the way I am walking, the way I am talking, is my voice too high pitched, is my walk too sissy? What way am I presenting myself?

“You second guess yourself the whole time and you are living in this bubble and have this horrible secret looming over your head. Now the idea now of being able to be representation for someone is amazing, I get loads of messages from people and me out there living my own life being queer is really helpful because people are like 'it’s ok to be gay'.”

It’s a case of a lot done more to do when it comes to equality in Ireland according to the London-based influencer who said:

“The LGBTQ movement is in such a good place now, the progress made in the last ten years is just insane but there is still a long way to go there are hate crimes happening still."

Chris says he wishes there had been a platform like TikTok where he could have found support growing up.

"I probably wouldn’t have felt so alone," he said. "I feel like from about the ages of 12 -19 I was a bit reclusive because I didn’t know how to relate to people around me. There was a big emphasis on playing sport and seeking women and you internalise it and think you have done something wrong and think why am I not having the same desires as everyone around me."

The fluent Irish speaker was previously part of a TG4 series documenting life as a member of the LGBTQ community in Ireland and the struggles he faced growing up accepting his own identity. Venturing into mainstream media again is something Chris hopes to do in the future.

"Miriam Mullins is doing Dancing with the Stars in Ireland and Eric Roberts was on one of the biggest shows ever on Netflix, Squid Games the Challenge so there is definitely good headway to move on into mainstream media," he said.

"It has always been my goal to do The Late Late Show, I think that is the height of Irish fame to be on the Late Late Show or to host The Late Late Show that would be the absolute dream for me!

There is a temptation to capitalise on your online popularity according to Chris but staying "authentic" is more important to him as he explains:

"TikTok was always my outlet during Covid, it was my creative way of keeping sane during that time and I wanted to keep that," he said. "There are definitely opportunities that come from it, there are definitely ways to make pocket money because I’m very conscious of leaning too hard on the ad side of things," he added.

"It’s a bit of a rabbit hole, once you start doing too many ads that doesn’t make sense for your audience. I wanted to make sure that I was still always having fun making content and always enjoying it, the first and foremost way of making the videos was to make people smile and laugh and connect with the queer community as well."